At least 50 people killed as violence, Taliban resistance growing

KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO nations failed to agree on calls by military commanders for 2,500 extra troops to help crush the growing Taliban-led resistance in Afghanistan, where at least 50 people were killed Wednesday in widespread violence.

NATO announced that 173 people - including 151 Afghan civilians - have been killed in suicide bombings across the country since the start of the year. The remaining victims include NATO and U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan authorities.

It was the first time NATO released such figures and they indicate the dangerous change in tactics by militants, who have been following the lead of insurgent attacks in Iraq.

The ferocity of the Taliban resurgence since their 2001 ouster has taken U.S. and NATO commanders by surprise, particularly in southern provinces where NATO forces have been clashing daily with militants since taking control of the region on Aug. 1.

U.S. officials announced after a Kabul car bombing Friday that killed 16 - including two American troops - that a suicide bombing cell was hunting foreign troops in the capital.

Meanwhile, thousands of Canadian troops reclaimed more contested territory from Taliban fighters in the southern Kandahar province insurgent hotbeds of Panjwayi and Zhari. NATO forces claim to have killed at least 517 militants in both districts since launching a large-scale campaign on Sept. 2 dubbed Operation Medusa.

Purported Taliban spokesmen dispute the death toll and claim in videotapes that they are pushing NATO forces to the limit across the vast deserts and mountain ranges of Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

Some 8,000 Canadian, British and Dutch soldiers - almost half of the 20,000-strong NATO force - are leading the anti-Taliban push in the south. But military chiefs say another 2,500 troops, plus greater air support, would help them crush the Taliban threat more quickly.

In Brussels, Belgium, NATO countries failed Wednesday to commit more troops, planes and helicopters to the NATO mission, despite a plea by the alliance's American commander, Gen. James Jones.

"No formal offers were made at the table," said NATO spokesman James Appathurai. He told a news conference some allies had given "positive indications" on the reinforcements, but suggested final decisions may have to wait until a Sept. 28-29 meeting of NATO defense ministers in Slovenia.

In Kabul, another NATO spokesman, Mark Laity, said NATO forces were only at "85 percent of the capabilities we were told we would have" to fight between 4,000 to 7,000 insurgents believed active in the country.

In southern Helmand province, police killed 16 Taliban in a mountainous area outside the town of Garmser, which militants recently took over for the second time in two months, before Afghan and NATO forces claimed it again on Monday.

Garmser police chief Ghulam Rassoul said the militants were killed in a four-hour battle that began late Tuesday and continued into Wednesday.

Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces also killed between 20 and 30 Taliban on Wednesday in raids on three villages in central Ghazni province, Afghan officials said.

In western Farah province, four police and four insurgents were killed after militants ambushed a police convoy, police said .

In other violence, a suicide attacker was the sole victim when his bomb exploded inside a Sunni Muslim mosque in Kandahar, police said , and a roadside bomb killed a border police guard chief and three other officers in eastern Kunar province.